Thirty Years Of Excellence: The Hospital That Champions Can Depend On

Before the Dubai World Cup could become the world’s richest race, the infrastructure had to match the ambition. Dubai Equine Hospital was that foundation.

Three decades on, with Badria Al Jaziri at its helm, the institution has evolved into a global benchmark for equine medicine – serving champions from across the racing world. This is the story of the hospital behind the horses, and the director ensuring that when the world’s best arrive in Dubai, they are in the very best hands.
In 1995, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued an order: build an equine hospital in six months, and it must be the best. The instruction was not a wish. It was a condition. The inaugural Dubai World Cup was a year away, and if the race was to carry the credibility its founders demanded, a facility capable of serving the world’s finest racehorses had to exist before the first gate opened. Dubai Equine Hospital was the result.

Walking through its corridors today, what strikes Badria Al Jaziri most is not what has changed but what has not. “So many things are as they were in 1995 – 30 years ago – because the standard set then was so high that we haven’t needed to replace them,” she says. “The surgery room is as it was. The ICU is as it was. The challenge of building it in six months – and having it last three decades – that says everything.”

THE FOUNDATION THAT HELD

When the hospital opened, it stood alone. There was no other equine hospital of this calibre in the region. Initially its services were confined to the stables of the Royal Family, its existence driven by the specific demands of internationalcompetition at the highest level. But its reach quickly extended: clients came from all seven emirates and throughout the Middle East. Horses sometimes arrived in horse boxes, driven thousands of kilometres under quarantine conditions along with their connections, who followed by car.

Three decades on, the landscape it helped create has grown beyond anything its founders might have mapped. Equine hospitals have sprung up across the Gulf, racing has expanded into a multi-million-dollar industry spanning the peninsula, and the sport that once needed Dubai to vouch for the region’s credentials now speaks for itself. Dubai Equine Hospital’s place in that story is foundational – and its standards, rather than being superseded, remain the benchmark against which others are measured.

THE ANATOMY OF RACEDAY

For the 2026 Dubai World Cup – the 30th edition – the hospital’s operational reach extends far beyond its walls. On raceday, a doctor is stationed at the on-site Meydan clinic, equipped with scope, X-ray and medication. A veterinarian follows horses from the saddling area to the parade ring; another travels in a vehicle alongside the field during the race itself. A vet is also positioned at the starting gate. The moment any medical situation arises, the Emirates Racing Authority calls, and the hospital responds.

“When it is serious and needs referral, the full surgical team is already waiting.”

The hospital sits approximately 10 minutes from Meydan – the closest possible super-speciality equine facility to the track. A full surgical team, ambulance and specialist horse-handling crew are on call through the entire card. From a horse’s first sign of distress to ICU admission, surgical intervention and recovery, the process is entirely in-house. “It is wholly managed by my team,” she says. “No freelancers. No gaps.”

The hospital is structured beneath the director, with three line managers each focused on developing their respective teams to the highest possible standard. Dr Russell Malton serves as Head of Field Veterinary – Flat Racing, Dr Nivaldo Meneghetti‏ as Head of Field Veterinary – Endurance Racing and Dr David Carnicer as Head of Veterinary Clinicians.

DIAGNOSTIC PRECISION: THE GAMMA CAMERA

Among the capabilities that separate Dubai Equine Hospital from every other equine facility in the region is its gamma camera – the central tool in equine nuclear scintigraphy, detecting bone metabolic activity, stress fractures and inflammation invisible to conventional imaging. It serves the most complex lameness cases: horses that have been through X-ray, ultrasound and nerve block without resolution, whose problems reside in the back, pelvis or upper limbs where standard diagnostics cannot reach.

Once injected with the radioisotope, the horse must wait two hours before scanning begins. Then the gamma camera localises the abnormality. Dubai Equine Hospital was the first facility in the Middle East to perform this procedure. Al Jaziri is one of only two people in the region qualified to operate the equipment – the other being an Emirati nuclear medicine technologist she has trained since taking the directorship. At the annual meeting for their MRI equipment manufacturer, the hospital registers the highest volume of suspensory images presented at the meeting. “When the company wants to change a scanning protocol, they ask us,” Al Jaziri says. “We are their partners because of the volume and expertise we bring.”

OPEN TO THE WORLD

One of the less widely known aspects of the hospital’s offering is also one of its most distinctive. If an owner or trainer wishes to use their own surgeon – a specialist who has worked with the horse throughout its career – Dubai Equine Hospital will accommodate them. The visiting surgeon may operate using the hospital’s facilities alongside its team; a policy that would be almost unthinkable in most medical institutions. “Although our team is of the highest calibre,” Al Jaziri says, “we understand that you may want your own surgeon to perform the surgery, as he knows the horse’s full history and his comfort levels. That is how far we will go to understand our clients.”

That same standard applies to every admission. Whether the patient is a Group One contender flown in for the Dubai World Cup or a privately owned pony from the emirates, the care is identical. “We always maintain the highest medical standards,” Al Jaziri says.

A COMPLETE INSTITUTION

The breadth of Dubai Equine Hospital’s capability is rarely fully appreciated. Clinically, the hospital offers surgery, internal medicine, ambulatory services, dentistry, chiropractic and reproduction. Diagnostically, it spans radiology, nuclear scintigraphy, MRI, ultrasound, endoscopy and a fully equipped clinical laboratory, all available around the clock. The on-site pharmacy and laboratory deliver a complete 24-hour patient monitoring service, while a close relationship with the Central Veterinary Laboratory brings access to autologous cell therapy and biopharmaceutical products. An anatomy museum and research library complete an infrastructure as much academic as clinical.

Each year, veterinary students and graduates from across the world come to gain experience through the hospital’s internship, externship and continuing education programmes. A placement here has become a credential sought by the next generation of equine specialists. Dubai Equine Hospital is not only caring for the champions of today – it is helping to train those who will care for the champions of tomorrow.

THE NEXT THIRTY YEARS

Al Jaziri’s ambitions extend well beyond the clinical. Since taking the directorship, she has been building relationships with MOCCAE, Dubai Police and educational institutions, driven by a conviction that the hospital’s responsibility does not end at the point of diagnosis. The number of private horse owners across the emirates has grown sharply, and new owners sometimes unknowingly delay urgent referrals or seek guidance from unqualified practitioners. “Currently, we are working towards raising social awareness about horse management which, in turn, leads to better care of horses by cutting through superstition, gossip and fake news. We provide accurate information for the welfare of horses in the UAE.”

The clinical team is also integrating AI, incorporating new diagnostic tools alongside existing expertise.

“When people name the great equine hospitals of the world,” she says, “they always include Dubai Equine Hospital.” It was built in six months, to an order from a man who does not accept second best. The standard it set has outlasted every test thrown at it. Under its new director, the hospital is moving not simply to maintain that standard, but to extend it.